Would I miss the boat?

I had my heart set on making the earlier ferry which in turn made me feel like I was in an episode of The Amazing Race when teams realize they have a bad taxi. I certainly didn’t have a million dollars on the line but I felt like I had enough time to realistically get to the Port.

So what if I missed the boat, literally. The alternative wasn’t all that bad. I could park myself at a cafe, have lunch and people watch for the better part of the afternoon. Though I was keen to get to Uruguay in the afternoon, especially since I still didn’t know where I was going to sleep that night.

After driving in circles and asking some construction workers, the taxi driver went to the front of the terminal and told me to get out.

When we finally made it to the port, even I knew where I was! I had eaten lunch there with the boyfriend, A and C last year. But what made me nervous was that the signage at the Port said BuqueBus. Everywhere.

I trusted the taxi driver. We said goodbye and I had thirty minutes to figure everything out, which was great. The ticket asks you to arrive ninety minutes ahead of the departure time to allow for customs and immigration at the terminal. Plus, I still had to see about changing my ticket.

I entered the BuqueBus terminal looking for the SeaCat ticket counter. No signage anywhere for SeaCat. Finally, I asked someone who had heard of SeaCat and then he told me to get into the BuqueBus line. Now I was utterly confused.

So into the line I went. When I made it to the front, I was informed to go to a different counter to change my ticket. Then I had to go back to the original line to check in. None of these lines are labeled for their particular purpose, nor does any signage say SeaCat, further confusing me, but I went along with it.

After a successful check in, I was directed to customs and immigration, where I was stamped out of Argentina by one man, who handed my passport to the lady sitting next to him, who stamped me into Uruguay. Very quick and very efficient. Before embarking, I was asked for my passport and ticket one last time. That’s right. I made it! I was on the 12.30pm BuqueBus to Colonia! I would arrive into Uruguay in one hour!

Note: It was explained to me later, in Spanish, and this is what I think I understand.

There are several operators selling tickets for the ride across the Rio de la Plata. Each company, including SeaCat, operates their own website and each has their own logo. And their own prices too. Yet they are selling the same exact service on a BuqueBus route.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, July 1st, 2012 at 8:01 pm and posted in boat travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.